M = MCCULLOUGH, David - Author, A-Z Blog Challenge 2016

Take me on a trip to a distant city, in a time already passed - tell me how it really was. . .

David McCullough has done that several times.

David McCullough at Emory University, 2007

M = McCullough, David, Author
Theme = Authors, AtoZ



David Gaub McCullough born in Pittsburg, July 7,1933, is an American author, narrator, historian and lecturer. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient and has been honoured with the National Book Award. He has also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US. 

McCullough's first book was The Johnstown Flood 1968, and following his success with that, was Harry S. Truman, John Adams, and The Brooklyn Bridge.  McCullough also narrated many documentaries such as Seabiscuit, and The Civil War by Ken Burns.

As a child, McCullough's parents and his grandmother introduced him to books at an early age and read to him. He often heard his parents talking about history, a topic he says should be discussed more often. He decided to write about a subject showing "people were not always foolish and inept or irresponsible." So, he wrote the story of the Brooklyn Bridge, which he had walked across many times.

In 1977, McCullough travelled to the White House to advise Jimmy Carter on the Panama Canal issues. Carter later said the bill wouldn't have passed had it not been for the book which McCullough had written (The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal).


Quote: David McCullough
To me history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is."

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David McCullough lives in Boston and is married to Rosalee Barnes McCullough whom he met when she was just 17. They have five children and many grandchildren. He enjoys sports, history and art.

The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris . . . A Review by DGH
http://dghudson-rainwriting.blogspot.ca/2014/03/the-greater-journey-americans-in-paris.html

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Have you heard of David McCullough or have you read any of his books?  If you have, let me know which ones. Do you like history based stories?

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and I'll respond. Thanks for dropping by!

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A to Z Challenge - 2016

It's April again and time for the 2016 Blogging from A to Z challenge  This is my 4th year participating in the challenge! (Previous A to Z  posts at the top of my blog page tabs are: Art A-Z, French Faves, Paris, Etc. 

Thanks to originator Lee (Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out), and the co-hosts and co-host teams who make the challenge run smoothly. See the list of participants, and other important information at the A to Z Blog site.  The basic idea is to blog every day in April except Sundays (26 days). On April 1st, you begin with the letter A, April 2 is the letter B, and so on. Posts can be random or use a theme.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 - Badge

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-z-challenge-sign-up-list-2016.html A to Z Blog List

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References:

Wiki on McCullough
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McCullough 

Image
David McCullough speaking at Emory University, on April 25, 2007.

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E = ERNEST HEMINGWAY, Author, A-Z Blog Challenge 2016

A writer who refined the sentence and the word to its essence.  His name was Ernest Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway working on For Whom the Bell Tolls

E = Ernest Hemingway, Author, Journalist
Theme - Authors AtoZ

Ernest Miller Hemingway, born July 21, 1899, and died July 2, 1961, was an American writer of novels and short stories, supplementing that with journalistic articles. Most of his work was written between the mid 1920s and the mid 1950s. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. His published work included seven novels, six short story collections and two nonfiction works. Additional work was published posthumously including one of my favourites, A Moveable Feast.

In the early 1920s, Hemingway married the first of four wives, Hadley Richardson. They moved to Paris, where he became a member of the expatriate community and the 'Lost Generation'. He met Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and Ezra Pound, three whom he would befriend. 

Women were drawn to the author, and it seemed there was always someone waiting in the wings . . .when each marriage fell apart. Stein also introduced Hemingway to the artists and writers in the Montparnasse Quarter. There he met Picasso, another of Stein's favourites, and other influential artists. 

Ernest Hemingway, passport photo 1923 - PD

In 1939, Hemingway sank into depression  as his literary friends began to die: that year William Butler Yeats and Ford Madox Ford; in 1940 F. Scott Fitzgerald; in 1941 Sherwood Anderson and James Joyce; in 1946 Gertrude Stein; and the following year in 1947, Max Perkins, Hemingway's long-time Scribner's editor and friend.

In the 1950s, Hemingway suffered from the two plane crash/explosion accidents he had sustained in Africa, and became bedridden for a time. He was suffering from high blood pressure, liver disease, and arteriosclerosis by 1956. In November 1956, while in Paris, he recovered trunks he had stored in the Ritz Hotel in 1928 and never retrieved. The trunks were filled with notebooks and writing from his Paris years. Excited about the discovery, he returned to Cuba in 1957, and began to shape the drafts he had found into his memoir, A Moveable Feast. Hemingway had recurring bouts of illness and may have been suffering from a family condition which had affected other members of his birth family.

Fast forward to 1961. On July 2, 1961, Hemingway's sad death made all the news networks, and left a gap in the writing world. As he had predicted at his father's death by suicide, he did choose the same way to exit this world. At the time however, the press was told it was an accidental death, but later, his wife Mary revealed the truth. 

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Are you a fan of Hemingway? Which novel do you like best? If you are not a fan - why not? 

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and I'll respond. Thanks for dropping by!

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A to Z Challenge

It's April again and time for the 2016 Blogging from A to Z challenge  This is my 4th year participating in the challenge! (Previous A to Z  posts at the top of my blog page tabs are: Art A-Z, French Faves, Paris, Etc. 

Thanks to originator Lee (Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out), and the co-hosts and co-host teams who make the challenge run smoothly. See the list of participants, and other important information at the A to Z Blog site.  The basic idea is to blog every day in April except Sundays (26 days). On April 1st, you begin with the letter A, April 2 is the letter B, and so on. Posts can be random or use a theme.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 - Badge

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References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway Wiki on Ernest Hemingway


Image: Hemingway's 1923 passport photo

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. See Copyright.

 List of his books I have read: For Whom the Bells Toll, To Have and to Have Not, The Sun Also Rises, A Moveable Feast, A Farewell to Arms. I've reviewed several of these under the book review tabs at the top of my blog page.

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